Miami Officer Disputed On Shot That Led to Riot

By MICHEL MARRIOTT, Special to the New York Times

Published: January 22, 1989

MIAMI, Jan. 21—
Witnesses to the fatal shooting that led to widespread racial violence here have given an account sharply at odds with that given by the lawyer for the police officer who fired the shot.

The attorney, Roy E. Black, said Thursday that Officer William Lozano fired in self-defense at a 23-year-old black motorcyclist who was threatening to run him down. But witnesses who were at the scene Monday said in interviews that the officer deliberately walked into the street and shot at the motorcyclist as he passed. directly contradicting the assertion of the police officer's attorney that the officer shot as the motorcycle was bearing down on him.

The cyclist, Clement Anthony Lloyd, was killed instantly. His passenger, Allen Blanchard, a 24-year-old visitor from the Virgin Islands, was thrown into an oncoming car. He died of head injuries a day later.

The ensuing violence spread from the Overtown neighborhood into two other largely black sections of Miami. By the time it subsided Wednesday, six people had been injured, nearly 30 buildings had been burned, 351 people had been arrested and Miami's civic pride had suffered a serious blow as it prepared for Super Bowl XXIII Sunday. Eyewitness Accounts

The following account of the shooting has been pieced together from the descriptions of witnesses and from police reports.

Mr. Lloyd and his blood-red Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle were familiar figures in Overtown, and few paid much attention as he gunned it through neighborhood streets in the late afternoon of the holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Kevin and Fred Saunders, brothers who live in a rundown garden apartment near the shooting scene and who were friends of Mr. Lloyd, said he had driven by their place that afternoon, wearing his trademark grin and a red helmet that matched his sweatsuit.

''He was just having fun riding his motorcycle,'' Kevin Saunders said, adding that his friend rode the bike mostly for the thrill of it rather than for actual transportation. Coming From Parade

Claudia Lubrin, Mr. Blanchard's older sister, said her brother and Mr. Lloyd left a parade in Dr. King's honor shortly after 5 P.M. and were heading for the apartment where Mr. Blanchard was staying with his older brother, Francis.

Police reports say the motorcycle was traveling about 60 miles an hour, twice the speed limit, south on Northwest Second Avenue.

At 6:05 P.M. John Mervolion, a police officer returning downtown after an off-duty shift as a security guard, noticed the speeding motorcycle. He turned on the lights of his patrol car and began chasing the two men. The police reports say Mr. Lloyd then quickly turned west and then north onto Northwest Third Avenue, speeding away from Officer Mervolion, who had reported the chase on his radio. The authorities have said they believe Officer Lozano heard the report. Account of Shooting

Some six blocks ahead, on Northwest Third Avenue, several witnesses said they saw Officer Lozano standing behind his parked patrol car with another officer, whom the police have identified as Dawn Campbell. An unidentified man was also standing with Officer Lozano, giving him information about a registration decal someone had apparently stolen from his license plate.

Seconds later, the witnesses said, Officer Lozano looked up, tossed his pen and notebook into his car's open trunk and snatched his service weapon, a 9-millimeter automatic pistol, from his holster.

''He crouched, then kind of tiptoed out into the street,'' said a longshoreman who said he had refused to talk to the authorities for fear of police retribution and would not identify himself further. ''He crept into the street, almost to the center line, holding his pistol with both hands.

''Just when the motorcycle came by, he fired. Boom!'' The longshoreman turned on the balls of his feet to demonstrate. ''He meant to kill him,'' he said.

Allen Fordham, a 57-year-old longshoreman who was also watching, said, ''That's exactly how it happened.'' He and several witnesses said Officer Lozano had not been threatened by the speeding motorcycle until he stepped into the street to train his weapon on it. Thrown From Motorcycle

A 10-year-old boy said he was across the street at the time of the shooting, playing on the high black iron fence that partly encloses an apartment building. ''I saw it,'' he said shyly. ''He held his gun up high and shot the guy when he went past.''

The police said that after Officer Lozano fired the shot, which pierced Mr. Lloyd's helmet and entered his brain through the left temple, the motorcycle continued for 20 to 30 yards, then veered out of control and struck a southbound car. The driver, Fred Johnson, told the police that the motorcycle threw the men against his car, shattering its windshield. Mr. Blanchard's head struck the windshield before the force of the collision tossed his body back over the car.

Witnesses said he lay conscious in the street, whispering for help. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he died of head injuries.

Mr. Lloyd's body would lie in the street, his boots extending from the edge of a white sheet, for more than two hours. More than 100 onlookers ran to the scene.

The police said some in the crowd began throwing stones, bottles and insults at Officer Lozano and other officers who hurried to the scene. Mayor Xavier Suarez, who arrived soon after, lifted the sheet so Mr. Lloyd's mother and sister could see the bodies; the Mayor would later apologize for that action, saying it may have helped fuel the riot that followed.

Four separate investigations of the incident are under way, including one by the United States Attorney's office to determine whether the civil rights of the slain men were violated.

Officer Lozano has refused to give a formal statement to the authorities. His lawyer, Mr. Black, said the city administration was using the officer as a scapegoat to salvage its civic pride.

On Wednesday, Police Chief Perry C. Anderson said he had ''major concerns'' about the ''unusual circumstances'' of the shooting.

The 20-page city policy on deadly force says it should be used only as a ''last resort'' to protect the lives of officers and civilians. It specifically prohibits deadly force against suspects in petty crimes and traffic offenses, although a clause provides for unspecified mitigating circumstances.

In an interview, Ms. Lubrin spoke sadly of her younger brother, Mr. Blanchard, who was buried today. He had come to Miami in November at the urging of their brother Francis.

Allen Blanchard missed the Caribbean, she said, and had decided he would return to St. Croix at the end of this month.

''He wanted to go back,'' she said. ''This was sort of a holiday for him.''

Photos of the coffin of Allen Blanchard being carried to his funeral service in Miami (AP); Jeffrey Allen taking entrepreneurial advantage of the recent unrest. (NYT/Susan Greenwood)